Archive for March, 2009
by James M. Wall Things are becoming “curiouser and curiouser” in Wonderland. We have fallen into that deep hole with Alice where up is down and down is up. “Who are YOU?” said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I–I hardly know, […]
Filed under: Politics and Elections | 2 Comments
by James M. Wall Veteran Israeli journalist Uri Avnery is constantly outraged at the conduct of the nation he loves. In a column in the Palestine Chronicle, Avnery writes about a case now before the Israeli Supreme Court in which a group of Jews and Arabs seek to overturn a draconian Israeli law that attacks the core of […]
Filed under: Middle East Politics | 5 Comments
By James M. Wall Ron Holloway was one of my earliest mentors in relating film to religion. We met during the 1960s, the peak era for art movies when European imports were arriving in the US from directors like Ingmar Bergman, Francoise Truffaut and Michelangelo Antonioni. Ron was instrumental in creating a Chicago-based organization for film […]
Filed under: -Movies and politics, -Movies and Religion, Movies | 1 Comment
by James M. Wall While keeping up with L’Affaire Freeman, which has been consuming this blog of late, I have been rereading Jimmy Carter’s We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work. I started this post on Carter’s book the morning […]
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by James M. Wall There are few journalists working today I admire as much as I admire David Broder. We go way back. As far back as the George McGovern campaign of 1972. This is a man I trust and what is more important, he is trusted by the Washington political and media community. His […]
Filed under: Media | 2 Comments
by James M. Wall The New York Times finally woke up to the Charles Freeman affair and wrote about Freeman’s withdrawal in its news pages this morning. The Times called AIPAC for a statement and allowed a spokesman to deny involvement while treating the withdrawal as a “new” story, even though the assault on Freeman has been waged for […]
Filed under: Media, Middle East, Religious Faith | 5 Comments
By James M. Wall Back in the Israel Lobby’s halcyon days, could you imagine a New York Times leading columnist writing the following paragraphs? And keeping his job? Like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah has long been treated by the United States as a proscribed terrorist group. This narrow view has ignored the fact that both […]
Filed under: Middle East Politics | 2 Comments
by James M. Wall Yes, Virginia, there is an Israel Lobby, and it is still fighting to block Charles Freeman’s recent appointment. We thought the matter was settled when the word came down that Charles Freeman would be named chairman of the National Intelligence Council. This decision evoked great rejoicing among those of us who […]
Filed under: Middle East Politics, Politics and Elections | 13 Comments
By James M. Wall The map above shows the final results of the 2006 Palestinian legislative district elections. It was distributed by the Central Elections Commission of Palestine and published on the BBC website. One half of the legislators in the 2006 election were chosen in districts (66 seats); the other half were chosen in a “countrywide” vote […]
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